The Comox Valley RV Half Marathon yielded me some shockingly unexpected results this year.
I left my house at 6:30am in order to give myself some time to warm up before the race, which started at 11am.
Honestly, I was feeling a little bit tired on my drive to Courtenay. When I got there, my legs felt tired and heavy during the warm-up, so I was a bit concerned about it.
I decided to put the “tired” thought out of my mind when the race started.
At the start line, a few of my friends asked me what time I was hoping to get. I said: “I will be extremely happy with 1:29:59.”
Basically, I just wanted to break 1:30, even if it was only by 1 second. That number in my head meant a lot to me.
After the first km, I was still unsure of what will happen. I was running beside a lady who usually always finished in front of me. I thought: “I will just stick with her for as long as I can.”
By the time I got to the 5km mark, my Garmin said 21:16.
At that point, I had already passed the lady that I was trying to keep up with. I was expecting her to stay with me, but instead, by the time we reached the 10k mark, I could no longer see her. This was shocking to me.
I was keeping a very comfortable and conservative pace, so I was definitely surprised that she didn’t stay with me.
At the 10k mark, my Garmin read 42:38. I was very happy with that. By the time I got to the turnaround point, I only saw 2 other women in front of me.
In the back of my mind, I thought there was a remote chance that I could get significantly closer to them. With that in mind, I picked up the pace a little bit.
When I got to 15k, I was 1:03 into the race. That’s less than a minute off my Merville 15k time from last year.
Most importantly though, I felt great. I also felt like I could keep going at that speed pretty much forever.
There was an awesome small group of guys that I was trying to stick with. I had expected to see one or two girls inching closer towards me.
However, to my surprise, it didn’t happen.
In fact, I didn’t see anyone too close behind.
Sticking with the guys in front helped me take my mind off the headwind, which appeared to be there strictly to slow us down. Luckily, none of us really did.
I backed off a little bit for kms 18 and 19, knowing that there were no other girls too close behind me. I really didn’t slow down all that much.
By the time I reached the 20k mark, I picked up the pace again.
Shortly thereafter, I heard and saw the finish line.
From a distance, I was trying to see what the clock said because I have not been looking at my watch for the past 2km at all.
When I got to the last 100m, I could clearly see the clock, which said 1:27:xx. I crossed the finish line in 1:28:15 (average pace 4:11 per km or 6:44 per mile), which was a 3+ minute personal best for me.
I used to struggle to keep that pace for 1km. To think that I did THAT for 21.1km and had no problems with it showed me how far I have come. It also showed me that hard work pays off.
Seeing that I could finish the half marathon under 1:30 was a hugely encouraging moment for me. I also remember that it used to take me about 1:30 to run a 10k (which is just a bit less than a half marathon).
I spent all of last year trying to break 1:30 only to come up about 90 seconds short of that goal when I was in my peak condition.
What’s pleasantly surprising was that I was the 3rd female overall (out of 235) and 1st in my age group (out of 27). It has been a while since I won my age group, especially because I am now in a more competitive one.
I even got mentioned in Athletics Illustrated for my 3rd place finish.
If, back when I struggled through the Harriers Pioneer 8k, I knew that I was going to run a huge personal best in the half marathon approximately one month until Boston, I would have been a lot less worried about my not-so-great performances at the beginning of the year.
Here’s to hoping that the upcoming races also go well.